1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to a Global Positioning System (GPS) signal reception apparatus and method and, more particularly, to a GPS signal reception apparatus and method which can efficiently avoid a GPS jamming signal using sector antennas, which have respective directivities, in a time synchronization GPS reception system which is vulnerable to electronic interference (jamming).
2. Description of the Related Art
GPS is a satellite navigation system which can obtain information about the location, speed, and time of a receiver by receiving GPS signals, transmitted from satellites, on the ground. GPS has been used in the fields of navigation, geodetic surveys, and precise time measurements in which time information is used in order to synchronize the time of a financial or communication network.
Jamming refers to the generation of the failure to receive an originally targeted radio signal because of another radio signal. Because the strength of a GPS signal is very weak, the corresponding signal is vulnerable to jamming, and low-power interference may easily jam the reception of a GPS signal.
Conventional technologies for handling GPS jamming may be divided into a previous correlation technology and a post correlation technology depending on the implementation location.
First, the previous correlation technology corresponds to a technology which is implemented at a location before a GPS receiver. Although the previous correlation technology has an advantage in that existing GPS receivers can be used without having to be changed, the previous correlation technology has disadvantages in that it is expensive to implement a relevant apparatus and the apparatus is large in size because of its technology being complicated.
Meanwhile, the post correlation technology corresponds to a technology which is processed at the step of tracing GPS carriers and codes using data digitized using common GPS antennas. The post correlation technology requires a relatively small amount of computational load compared to the previous correlation technology, so that the post correlation technology may be implemented in a GPS receiver. However, the post correlation technology has disadvantages in that existing GPS receivers should be modified and in that it is difficult to handle a strong jamming signal because anti-jamming gain is low, that is, 3 to 20 dB.